A policeman on horseback takes position during the trial of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi and Muslim brotherhood leaders at a court in the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt May 16, 2015.

Gunmen shot dead three Egyptian judges Saturday in the strife-torn Sinai Peninsula, where security forces are battling an Islamist insurgency spearheaded by an affiliate of the Islamic State group, police said.

The shooting wounded three other judges in North Sinai’s provincial capital El-Arish, and came hours after a court in Cairo sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi to death for his role in a mass jailbreak during the 2011 uprising.

Some of Morsi’s fellow defendants included jihadists in Sinai, where militants have regularly carried out attacks against policemen and soldiers.

Police said the judges came under attack while they were travelling by car from the canal city of Ismailiya to El-Arish for a court hearing.

Following the attack, the first of its kind in Sinai, Egypt’s interior ministry put police on high alert across the country and suspended all leave, a ministry official said.

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